1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to women's apparel, and more specifically, to front-opening upper-body garments with built-in, non-binding breast support which, while suitable for other uses, is especially suitable for use with causal, leisure and nighttime apparel.
2. Description of Prior Art
Many women, and particularly larger breasted women, often prefer to have some breast support when wearing casual, leisure and nighttime apparel. At present, the choices for those desiring such support include wearing either a conventional bra, or a casual "pull-over" top that includes some form of shelf-type bra. Examples of such pull-over tops are shown in Friedman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,015, Cordova, U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,174, and Silber, U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,320. While such pull-over tops are suitable for certain women on certain occasions, they are not suitable for all occasions or for all women, and they are not typically worn under other types of casual/leisure apparel. Therefore, although conventional bras are often not desirable with leisure wear as they tend to be restrictive and binding against the breasts as a result of the supporting/forming hardware, or preformed and/or elastic nature of the breast cups, given the choices presently available, if wearing, for example, a leisure or nighttime robe, or a sweat-suit or similar top as casual wear, women desiring breast support will typically opt for wearing a conventional bra. This is particularly true when wearing front-opening garments, although they would often prefer a less restrictive alternative.
Thus, there is need for new and improved non-binding, less restrictive breast support apparel suitable for use with casual, leisure and nighttime front opening garments.